Trump threatens Iran over ballistic missile test

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U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Iran over its ballistic missile test that violated a UN Security Council resolution.

Mr. Trump, in his tweets on Thursday, said “Iran has been formally put on notice”.

“Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!” Mr. Trump tweeted.

The president blamed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for giving life-line to Iran through a $150 billion deal.

“Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: 150 billion dollars,” he said on his Twitter handle.

Mr. Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had on Wednesday threatened Iran over the ballistic missile test, saying that the action violated a UN Security Council resolution.

“As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice,” Mr. Flynn told reporters at the White House press briefing on Wednesday.

The controversial missile test carried out by Iran has been said to be nuclear-capable with the capability of travelling up to 3,000 kilometres and is capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

Cruise missiles are harder to counter than ballistic missiles since they fly at lower altitudes and can evade enemy radar, confounding missile defense and hitting targets deep inside an opponent’s territory, the U.S. in this instance.

The Security Council’s sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme was lifted in 2016 following the 2015 pact brokered by Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the U.S.

Under the 2015 UN resolution endorsing the deal, Iran was asked to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting of most sanctions.

Iran has, however, insisted that the pact between it and the permanent members of the UN Security Council as endorsed by the UN, did not mention cruise missiles, insisting that the ban was only for ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

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